Overkill
by The Patient One
Summary: Those who are untouchable have the potential to commit the most grievous crimes. But there are some lines even they won't cross. One-shot, a salvageable segment from an old story that I never finished or published.


**In my early days of fan fiction writing, one of the stories that I planned out was a power fantasy Death Note Self-Insert. I've lost the original file by this point, but there wasn't much worth salvaging anyway...except this. This is the sole aspect of that story that I feel has potential, so I've tweaked it and published it as a one-shot. I hope it is as good as I think it is.**

Light Yagami frowned at the description of the criminal that met his eyes. Three murders and attempted suicide… one of which was a child and another of which was torture… the victim was drugged, but even so. He shook his head lightly and penned the name of the one responsible in the Death Note, ending his life without a second thought.

…Well. No regret crossed his mind, but he felt it almost poetic that someone who thought himself untouchable would die at the hands of one who truly was. L would go the same way in time. But consideration crossed his mind as he mused on it…

"Hey, Ryuk."

"Hmm?" the Shinigami lounging on the bed looked up.

"If you were so bored, why didn't you just try going off on a killing spree? Wouldn't it have been amusing enough to watch the humans try to discover a serial killer that they'd never have a prayer of finding?"

Ryuk chuckled softly. "You know, that isn't a bad idea, Light. But remember that the Death Note works differently for me; every name that I write is a few more years, probably decades, added to my lifespan. Only way to remove them is gambling them away with other Shinigami or letting time take its course. And I can't hold off hope on the first choice because my mindset is the typical one: why put that many more years onto your lifespan? What is there to look forward to?"

Light frowned as he recognized the point, recalling Ryuk's bleak description of his own world.

"Then why not just kill them without writing down their names? Either way, you're still untouchable."

"By humans, maybe, but not by our own kind; killing a human without a Death Note is against the law, and the punishment for it is worse than anything that you could imagine."

"Really?" Light said quizzically, raising a brow. "Tell me more."

"…Why do you want to know, Light?" Ryuk asked as he sat up.

"I could use some inspiration for how to pay L back for all the grief he's giving me when I've finally got his name."

Ryuk chuckled darkly. "All right...but I doubt it'll be of much help to you. And I'll expect a few more of these for answering you," he added, snatching and swallowing an apple from the table beside him before continuing with a notably smaller smile than he usually wore.

"It's true that humans can't touch Shinigami unless the Shinigami allow it, so until our lifespans run out, there's nothing that can kill us. But that doesn't mean that we're invincible. The old man back home still has plenty of ways that can hurt a Shinigami, and he uses them whenever somebody is stupid enough to break the laws. Killing a human without a Death Note is one of the Extreme laws, the highest level that we've got. And the punishment...is torture. Try to imagine that, Light: being attacked on all sides with every instrument of torture you can imagine for every second of every day, being tortured to _death_…and unable to die. Spending the rest of your existence in every kind of pain imaginable, surviving every last attack until your lifespan finally runs out, and you turn to dust."

Light wasn't far enough gone as he stared at Ryuk that he felt nothing from that description; any thoughts of using such a method on L, even if it were feasible, were no longer in his mind. Still, though…

"It's weird that that actually bothers you, Ryuk. I thought you would say that that would just make things more interesting."

Ryuk looked up, his eyes meeting Light's, and he let out a sigh, his smile completely gone now.

"I might, Light, if I didn't know exactly how bad that punishment can be. Six hundred and sixty-six years ago this June, a Shinigami named Xevert killed a human without the Death Note. Xevert was one of the biggest predators among the Shinigami back in the golden days; he'd hunt at least three humans every week to satisfy himself, stalking them unseen for a couple of days before finally snuffing out their lives.

"But he got too cocky, too caught up in the hunt; one time when he came back, he brought back a plant from your world…I think it was called white snakeroot or something. He used it the next time he went hunting to poison a woman who was really invested in one of your human religions and watch her die. It was good for a laugh at the time…until the old man found out. Xevert was thrown into torture, and it took a month before his screaming stopped echoing through the entire realm…because that was when the old man destroyed his voice."

Ryuk shook his head. "Xevert's torture hasn't ended yet, and it's not going to end anytime soon; he expanded his lifespan to last for centuries with all the humans he killed, and the old man has made sure we've all seen him at least once to make sure we don't get cocky. That's why I can't be entertained by torture, Light, and you'll never find a Shinigami who can because anyone who sees it will only be able to think of Xevert…and picture it happening to them."

Light slowly turned away and refocused on writing names. The conversation had killed his irritation towards L for the moment, but in its place was a reflection on himself. He had sacrificed a lot of his morals since he first picked up the Death Note…but it had all been for justice. He could use the book for torture if he wanted to…but Ryuk's expression still remained in his mind's eye. The Shinigami had been shocked to see how many people Light killed over five days, but he still hadn't stopped smiling. If it was bad enough that even Ryuk drew a moral line—Ryuk, an immortal entity who had dropped a weapon of effortless mass murder into the human world out of boredom and watched what happened with only amusement—then it was a line that Light didn't plan to cross.

Heart attacks were quick and efficient, providing just enough time and pain for the realization of what was happening to his victims. He shook his head as he solidified the idea to never use his powers for torture. That would literally be overkill.

**The pronunciation of Xevert is like 'shaver.' So… that's it. Hope you found it interesting.**


End file.
